, thanks for joining us. >> thank you. melissa: what do you make of this report? first of all, do you buy it? do you think it's possible? >> i dohink it's psible and i'm glad to see it come out. what it really does now it shows overhe 12 different enarios that the government study investiged each one of those scenarios came back and said america will benefit and have a positive economic gai if we export lng offshore to europe, and or asia and to other countries that need our gas. melissa: we have so much natural gas unlocked as a result of fracking, the problem is, intellectually, emotionally we can never wrap our heads on exporting energy. we're sure we have to keep it all for fraaking,ç problem isç intellectually wrap our heads aroundzv exporting energy. weypúre sure to keep itç all for ourselves.ç do you think the president andç washington in general cansget over that hurdle.ç >> it is a great pointç, what you're describeç something protectionism.zvçmyv it could be a cake and eat it too scenario. within eight years or now seven years as we turn into the new 2013 yea

only 600 prius sold in the first three quarters, leaving us with the number one electric car in the u.s., yeah, you got it, the always controversial chevy volt which does not make this noise. get this, the best selling car has just 13,000 sales. that's the best selling one. that's the one that does really, really good. the car is constantly a disappoint dollars. that is it for next "the willis report." thank you for joining us and i wish you and your families all have a very, very merry christmas. have a great night. lou: good evening, everybody. obama administration's collectible middle east policy. egypt right now on the grip of the worst political crisis since the fall of the president two years ago. and in syria, increasingly desperate measures to counter an insurgency that is slowly but surely pushing closer to control of the capital city of damascus. we will take all that up there with the fox news military analyst, new intelligence report that concludes america's time as the lone superpower is nearing an end. john negroponte joins us to discuss our nation's future as a superp

let's just look at a couple of elections that just took place everybody followed the us elections it was a very tight race between president obama and mitt romney in france we had a new president elected and people followed that in russia there was an election but not much choice and in china there wasn't even the pretended they didn't pretend to elect a new leader they just put someone there and people don't want that people want democracy people want to say people want to play a role in their societies china does not offer that to them in the political sphere and therefore i believe for a long time coming there's not going to be a chinese century while alexander what about the middle class what it would be said about the middle class because that's the power of the west traditionally. yes i mean the middle class is very strong in the west pretty is the right there are problems we have a declining middle class that is something we have to fight but for the time being . we are both the most competitive societies and the most equitable societies if you look at the distribution of inco

thank you for joining us. my name is richard fontaine. i'm the president for the center of new american security. it's a pleasure to welcome you all here to celebrate the publication of robert kaplan's new book the reason geography what they tell us about the coming conflict in the battle against the state. i've heard it said before that you all very great author by reading his books not by buying them -- they will be sold on the stage in this room back here. bald kaplan's work is known no doubt why this audience. he's been a senior fellow and in march of 2008 a foreign correspondent for the atlantic for about a quarter of a century and is currently the chief geopolitical analyst. i first became acquainted with his writing during his book with traces of history of the tight midwesterners living and working in the middle east. and since that book, the very titles of his work goes to the coming anarchy have provoked the debate. the recent book of american power has become acquired reading by those interested in the strategic competition in the coming decades. as i've gotten to know him ov

rejected any use of violence in the form of protesting however he did call for dialogue he asked opposition forces to meet him on saturday the eight to december to talk through some of the points of a have with this constitution and he said he might as well step back to an article six of the contentious constitution that duration which basically said that as the president he could do pretty much anything in the in the interest of protecting the nation thousands gathered at the presidential palace in opposition to president morsi is decision my colleague tom barton who was there on the scene and has this report some of the protesters behind me trying to move the barricades that have been put up by the army in front of the presidential palace. very tense standoff very large crowd. chanting slogans such as we watch out for all of the regime calling. was how much more seems. the other side. and there was this it was a standoff between pro and anti mohammed morsi. some of the country's top judges and the opposition like the people here on one side very much against a job want to see i

miles in six southwest states i saw poverty all over i lived in california twenty years ago i used to go to the southwest many years ago when you compare what's going on in parts of nevada in parts of utah and parts of colorado now days to twenty years ago you know it. is graphic anybody in europe is more complicated for instance i have lots of friends in spain my son lives in barcelona for that matter so i'm in close contact what's going on inside spain unemployment rate for the new generation the google facebook generation now is fifty percent so even if you go to a good school or even a back nickel school. it is in spain after wars there's no jobs so the solution for them is to immigrate to south america over here you know any in europe is more complicated you have parts of germany which have some of the best standard of living anywhere in the world you have northeastern italy for instance which has a tradition of small and two premierships you go to a small. construction area. making clothes in gucci style in florence or making food in bali and export all over the world but it is

all she was me thanks for joining us. on continental on injury issues are set to gather steam with president putin in brussels for talks with european union leaders russia's the largest oil and natural gas exporter the twenty seven nation blog but such a big pull the ship rarely comes without hurdles as an executor explains. the media and the analysts are expecting a very interesting russia in brussels with the russian president attending it personally obviously the talks between. we will focus on the energy issues we know that russia has built already built several gas pipelines which will deliver the russian gas to the european continent but still there are some contradictions remaining between. brussels with the latter of course accusing gas of breaking the rules of the market and now the very interesting part of the summit will probably be dedicated to the accusations from the european union of human rights violations in russia in particular. case and the recent law which was adopted in the united states and of course the law which was adopted in russia just recently just a cou

this earnings season. a new way to use earning season to put it in perspective because most of you watching the show are not these day traders that are hijacking a lot of the thinking. you're not trying to game a given quarter. it's become so difficult to predict and often the initial moves aren't even accurate because of the press coverage or because something nasty just occurred in the overall market because of europe or something involved in the election. in other words, other than for those who are shorting or going long stocks ahead of the quarter, these earnings reports need a context to make you money. they can't be relied upon anymore because they aren't as predictive of future behavior as they once were. they are a piece of the puzzle. a part of the mosaic. but they are only one of many important parts that predicts where a stock will go over the interyacht term. that tends to be the focus that i teach on the show. and it is a teaching show. because i want you to know the metrics i'm using to pick stocks i talk about and recommend here. and pick for my charitable trust, ac

despite the. corruption. so much for joining us here today. minus twelve. no word about the fate of a ukrainian journalist being held hostage in syria after a deadline execution set by rebels. with many other media outlets. was abducted by insurgents two months ago they threatened to kill her if a fifty dollar ransom was paid taking up the story for us now. well the deadline has passed with no word as to whether or not she is dead or alive she was reportedly kidnapped by the free syrian army and held for ransom of fifty million u.s. dollars she was taken hostage nearly two months ago and since then has appeared in two separate videos in the first she appeals to the ukrainian government to pay the ransom money and state her free in a second which many believe was made under due is she admits to being a spy for the point needs to be made that just about everyone believes that this video was made under extreme pressure and belts the objectiveness of what she was saying now reporters without borders amnesty international and a number of other nongovernmental organizations have called on

where it is to where it has never been. >> join us as we explore today's most critical global issues. join us for great decisions. (instrumental music) >> great decisions is produced by the foreign policy association, inspiring america's to learn more about the world. sponsorship of great decisions is provided by credit suisse, eni, the hurford foundation and pricewaterhousecoopers llp. >> coming up next, sacred cow: defending america on a budget. (instrumental music) (marching music) >> the u.s. spent the last century fighting well-defined wars against well-heeled enemies. ♪ stop! >> duck and cover up under the table. first you duck and then you cover. >> but the fall of the berlin wall meant the collapse of the traditional enemy and the military struggled to find its purpose in this post soviet world. >> we have to understand the role that the united states has played since the end of the second world war and still plays today and that is as a provider of security. not only to itself but to lots of nations around the world. and i think that the general global stability that we've

into the chair. two of the most violent gangs in us history. is just all model kill or be killed with the colors matching the national flag. but this country uses violence when it reaches its and then it legitimizes the violence they are made in america on the oxy. kona welcome to a business see a large loop oil has been discovered in greece's tax system embezzled money amounts to twenty eight billion euros per year that's equal to fifteen percent of the troubled economies g.d.p. now the international monetary fund is blaming businessmen government officials and even actors for neglecting to pay what they owe the country but apparently the fund believes it is impossible to return all of that money and suggests a write down fifty percent of it now while also adopting a law to automate the system deducting the from the embezzlers a bank account. of what's happening on the markets which we actually managed to show a bit earlier in the program or two steps forward one step back for russia is the ruble it has lost around three quarters of monday's gains versus both the dollar and the euro

well, because i used to play across the street from it, anit had beautiful timbe inside and oak fors, and what we got in its place is this motrosity, which certainly esn't fit intoheeighborhood at all. they're pi, ey're fluf, they're g,hey'riendly,here. and it really annoys me that people come in here and don't wa to blend into the neighborhood. narrator: like lissa forshaw, man: jthey either didn't want ous an older house, or they didn't want to fixt up, or money was no object, swith houses cong down and new houses going up, d the w houses unfortunately withhe existg archture. a cole of years o, this was just like a new suburb. there was just simply such an incredible density narratorto geograph, olr uses le this oneonstruction. being replaced by newer ones like these, reflect more than just a local superficial trend. they are the result of global forces from f beyonthis region. here we are now in south shaughnessy in a street where i would guess more than half the houses have been rebuilt within the last five years, and it's a striking example of the meeting of the local and the gl

of what has been done. there is a long history of using that debt limit as a moment to distract from the party in power. if we had an academic seminar on the impact of the that struggle and the fiscal policy, he would say that it was a negative thing. >> well, i have never until last year of august 2011, i have not seen any serious effort or serious threat made by the leadership of congress to refuse to give the secretary of treasury the ability to offer to meet obligations congress had adopted. i thought that was a new experience for us. it certainly was for me to see that happen. dr. zandi, you said you think that we need to repeal this law that tries to set a debt limit and concentrate more on taxing and spending policies that causes to raise the debt, as i understand? >> absolutely. it is a bad way to conduct policy. it is a problem. look at july and august of 2011. it was a mess. gdp downgraded the debt. it really had an impact. cbo is estimating the interest costs is costing us money. it is pretty clear that this is not going to get any better going forward. it will be worse. t

a smear campaign against it in terms of falsely accusing damascus of using chemical weapons the syrian foreign ministry has written a number of letters to the united nations in which it says that it is afraid that countries backing both terrorists and terrorism might them selves provide those countries with chemical weapons and then shift the blame and point fingers towards syria there is of course growing concern that the chemical weapons stockpiles within syria could land up in the hands of extreme militants in here we've been hearing reports of both al qaida as well as hizbullah in the south operating and lending their support to the insurgency and so there's concern that these weapons could land up specifically in their hands the united states for its side says it has intelligence that the syrian army may be preparing to use chemical weaponry and again the u.s. has pushed the line that this would be a red line if indeed it was proven and that this would bring in the shift reaction and the immediate involvement of the united states we are hearing from a u.s. official as well

to have you with us here in our to today at the u.k. government has given the green light to a controversial gas drilling technique it's known as fracking it's heavily. sized first destructive environmental impact including causing massive water pollution takes up the story. corps driller is the only company with a license to conduct fracking in the u.k. but that's all set to change now that the government has given its blessing for the controversial method of extracting shale gas from underground already operates several wells here in lancashire but the device of technology was temporarily banned last year and with good reason to the fracking taking place here to minor earthquake says. it was terrifying i'll be honest with you our local and pay is doing very little he said i don't know a lot about it well he should do a lot about it you're going to turn it into a tree to line shareholders pockets this is not going to benefit us and it will be a legacy toxic legacy for our children hundreds of miles away in london the capital's outspoken mayor calls shell gas on six of the nati

would have been a six week high for euro-dollar. joining us for more is alan capp, head of credit straebtegyt lloyds. alan, let's get your reaction. the number is going in the right direction. does it make much of a difference? >> right now the equity markets have had a great run. they're looking a bit overstretched. so i'm strul link to see how financial markets will respond positively to this. i think we need something bell to repel us forward. >> what do these numbers translate into in your forecast? >> what these are suggesting to us is manufacturing will not be able to support any growth in the eurozone, so it suggests that the downturn in gdp is likely to continue into fourth quarter, remain in recession and that's obviously a struggle on global growth, as well. >> and we stay in recession in the first quarter? we're now in december. >> there are some signs particularly the china pmi numbers and what we've seen from gdp recently that maybe some of the markets key to u.s. exporters may be showing signs of stabilizing, maybe get to growth. so that might mean moderation in the

joining us now from rome. do we expect more of this rhetoric today? >> oh, definitely. not just today, but specifically over two months. elections will only be held probably on february 24th. we've got about two months of the silly campaigning season to follow. so yes, as you said, the verbal exchange is definitely heating up. it started with mr. monti's response criticism coming from officials about his renewed request for the prime minister post yesterday. he said this criticism was out of place. it was offensive not just for him, but also for all of the people in italy who have the freedom to vote. this morning, he did an interview with one of the channels here in italy and he said, i don't really care about this spread because the spread is based on fraud. that's the direct translation. meanwhile, if you take a look at the spread, they are moving higher again. 4.9%. italian equity markets are moving fractionally to the down side. so you've got mr. monti on the wire saying, yes, we should care about the spreads. we should care about the italian yields. but at the same time, i

but has been slammed by the opposition correspondent belcher is in cairo for us this video to tell you it's nice here in the capital in cairo is people have been waiting for these key results on the referendum of the constitution in the last few hours we've got preliminary results of course british ones will come out of the second round indicate that it was a yes vote the muslim brotherhood together with the media outlets numbers of matching up they're saying approximately fifty six point five. percent voted yes three point five percent voting this will seem to be of course a major blow to the opposition forces particularly because in this round only two of the governorates in both through the ten votes as i see voted as a no to the opposition with numbers as high as seventy percent into ports of the constitution across the country this particular stage of the referendum was largely seemed to be the biggest chance for a no vote to the constitution as the government involved actually voted against the president during the presidential elections so really right now the opposition forces

showed his entire life. there was no staff there just the two of us. we talked for an hour. i would always remember -- having passed away yesterday, it will be imbedded in my mind. as we left, we both thought about fact we had not been able to sit down and talk like that enough. he professed at that time -- his words -- how lucky he has been his whole life. he said i got at emphysema now. i said, not from smoking. he said, i learn to smoke in the war as a boy. he smoked from 1944 to 1967. he told me he had lung cancer. but they were wrong. they took part of his lung out. he talked about how lucky he had been with surviving what he fought with lung can certification but how lucky he had been his while life, for example, the war. i'm sure people would not reflect on his massive injuries as being lucky. butth but he considered he was lucky to have lived. he had been called upon with three other people, three other soldiers, to cross a river in the dark of night, to find out what was going on, on the other side of the river, and he and his three companions, in the dark of the night -- d

player. that's it for us on "the five." thank you for watching. >>> i am greg gutfeld. welcome to "red eye." or as i am known in canada, the ontario open robe. let's go to andy levy for a pre game report. andy, what is coming up on tonight's show? >> way to nail that cold open. our top story, is a white tennis player imitating serena williams racist? why not? everything else is. and would we have a budget deal if women were in charge? women say yes, but men say, football, video games. and in the midst of a contract dispute, flight attendants choose to select lively -- selectively with 408d -- withhold services. greg? >> what is wrong with your left sleeve? >> what is that? >> what is wrong with your left sleeve? >> i don't believe anything is wrong with it. >> i believe something is wrong with it. look at it. >> it is not buttoned. >> exactly. what kind of code are you doing? >> my right is not buttoned? >> you want to show up for work -- -- >> i want to show up unbuttoned. it is not the only thing unbuttoned right now, pal. >> are you disgusting. she is so warm that global warmin

you for joining us here at the heritage foundation in our lewis lemon auditorium. we, of course, welcome those who joins honor heritage.org website on all of these. would ask everyone here in house if you'd be so kind to check cell phones one last time and see that they are turned off. thank you, louis. amazing how many speakers actually start doing that. we will post the program on a website within 24 hours for your future reference, and, of course, our internet viewers are always welcome to e-mail us with questions or comments, simply writing those to speaker@heritage.org. our guest today, doctor larry schweikart is a native arizonan turkey on this bachelor and masters degree at arizona state university and received his doctorate from university of california, santa barbara. throughout his high school and college, however, he spent most of his time playing drums in a variety of dance. as a rock, he was part of several groups, one of which opened for steppenwolf, among other performers for those old enough to remember them. his first film, rocking the wall, about rock music's a

slagged. this country uses violence when it reaches and it legitimatizes the balance they are made in america on the t.v. . i never thought i could earn a living this way. should test small arms so those photos to russian building client natalee also lost count of all the weapons she's fired over the past twelve years but i got so used to it sometimes my friends ask me to join them at the rifle range and i say no way i'm so tired of shooting. the plant's history goes from making firearms during world war two to ballistic missiles from nuclear submarines during the cold war the bulk of the soviet industry was moved here in the 1940's to flee the advancing germans so if you were also became the heart of soviet military production closed off to foreigners for half a century it thrived on the message of the soviet military when the u.s.s.r. collapsed but life here was shaken to the core but some adapted to better than others. this is the fuel truck factory russia's number one truck maker look at how well the workplace is organized everything's gone to make sure the workers don't waste

and preach about the fact they think so many of us asian american authors and asian authors in general tend to go back and write about our ancestors and write about things in our past not our specific past but may be of of ancestors and mothers and grand mothers. we have been telling their story. i think the generation to come, will be telling stories of living here. it will be different stories. but the oppression of our voices have been for so many, many years, if you think back the first writer who was read in terms of asian american was maxine kingston. i read her in high school and was greatly affected by reading about the woman warrior. before her there were few. there were some but didn't make that economic splash. they were never read in a large way. maxine was the first one we read her in school we knew of her. she was not out there like anny tan was when she wrote the joy luck club. so much of it is timing. it meant all the history and the voices before then had been silent. my generation of writers came in and we heard stories of women and men and the family of a dif

us through the time frame here? when are we expected monte to step down? what happens next? >> good morning to you, kelly. here is the time frame for you. over the next few weeks, we're expecting the budget stability law to be passed. neither of the political parties will want to be blamed for bringing down the stability of italy, so they will pass that over the next week. once that is passed, mr. mon at the said he would step down. that will happen likely around new year's. and then the president will have to dissolve the parliament and between 45 and 70 days after the parliament is dissolved, new elections will take place and that probably takes us to february 2014. and, kelly, that is two months before the actual election day should have taken place previously. now, that's two months earlier. we knew that mr. monti, the technocrat prime minister was going to step down. his days were numbered, anyway. so this is just a change of the time frame. it's not a huge surprises in itself. the only surprise is the timing. markets are selling down somewhat this morning. banking stocks. but

use a baseline that is different from the congressional budget office and senator warner talks about getting savings from the tax rates going up on what the americans. as i understand, it is already built into the cbo baseline. so, in terms of getting to that four to 6 trillion-dollar how much are we talking a lot in terms of real savings and in terms of tax increases, and how much are we talking about in terms of coming you know, just a redefined baseline? and then in the other question is can you give us an idea in terms of framework we are likely to see at the end of the year are we just going to see a bunch of top line number $800 billion with some sort of trigger or are we going to see the details, and if we see a bunch of top line numbers, how long does it take to get to feeling that an and drafting the legislation to get it through the congress? >> i would like to answer the second question. >> there is an old adage that says you don't learn a lot on the second kick in the shin from a mule. we've down this road of process. we have 12 fighting high caliber people that work on t

confidence, they are not so sure that's priced in. >> and you're staying with us for the rest of the hour. if all of this hasn't sent you over the edge yet, stay the cliff quiz on our website. have you taken the quiz yet? >> i looked at it. i did not do very well. there were some pop things in there that i didn't get. see if you can do better. it wouldn't take much. >>> greece's national bank euro bank alfa and perez says they need the money following disclosures by the lenders last week. greece is concerned that the 50 billion euros set aside for bank recapitalization will be enough to cover the shortfall. >>> and the italian treasury is holding its last debt sale of the year. traders are expecting to see solid demand for the paper after rome placed nearly 12 billion euros of shorted dated paper just yesterday. still, they warn investors could become more discerning in the new year especially as the italian electric tore ral race on thursday. italy expects to raise around 10 billion euros next year. less supply. we know there's still plenty of investor demand and no sign necessarily of r

. we are facing now a possible theory of stearate using chemical weapons. they should've been abolished five or 10 years ago if the treaty had been enforced. so it seems to me, go for abolition of these weapons with good, thorough verification. i worked with inf despite the fact that two or three years before we got it, but that would be acceptable. >> rick, your turn. >> as the chairman of the global stearate u.s.a., i have to agree with jack. i won't expound on that. you know, there was no way when i was deeply involved in the issue in the early 80s that i could've foreseen gorbachev. nor could i foreseen the treaty. the zero option when it was propounded was preposterous. i post it. so did the secretary of state. reviewed this and i guess this is the lesson. we view this is largely a challenge and an opportunity and strengthen the alliance. we saw ourselves under threat. the doublecheck decision on deployment of the missiles was part of a broader political military exercise to strengthen the alliance to deal with whatever the next challenge we would face from the soviet uni

flying over head. their voices leading us on. as the water lapped around me i saw a man the father of a school friend walk straight into the ocean he never turned back. one moment he was there and in the next he was swaulode by the sea. one woman took a knife and slashed her wrists. i remember how the bloodstreamed down her arms. she turned toward me with a strange smile handed me her knife. it felt so light. i looked down and saw it covered with the woman's blood. i wanted to scream and saw i lost my voice. don't be frightened, the old woman said, find the knife and end your misery return honor to your family. i know i didn't have the courage of the woman dying before me. when she reached toward me i pushed her back and she fell to our knees crying out for me to end her life as the waves washed over her. i began running. i ran and ran away from the beach and all the death and dying. now i don't remember what i was thinking. the greatest honor i could have given my family was that was my death and i ran from it. i was frightened for not fulfilling my obligation yet there was a voice i

not extent beyond the city limits. what has to come first for us to be on the track to success? >> it to get international security assistance peace right and you have african nations, including uganda and rwanda and participate, that gives you some breathing space to move on. that is the essential thing that first. to happen first brok >> you have to deal with governments, but obviously creating greater security -- >> governments at which level? "you cannot frankly do real governance of the provisional level with governors unless you're dealing with the capital, because of the nature of the congolese government. you start where you are, and you have monusco, with no real effectiveness, try to bring in units or create a new unit within it that has that capacity. if i were forced to make a choice, and i was dealing at the provincial level, the only force out there right now is monus whyco. would try to bring units in the letter actually capable -- monusco. i would try to bring units that are actually capable. i think it is really getting in there and working without putting our forces

and henry joins us now. 2013, what does pressure on the price of oil mean? >> downward, i think. i think what we see is some significant nonopec finds. we see falling u.s. demand, rising supply. we see miles driven. there's technology at play. probably the biggest thing that could happen to the auto industry and we can come on to that. that's only a few years out. the message from the futures market that we're get sg oil should be some $10 to $15 lower. if we were to get $10 off the oil price, it broadly equate toes about 1% gdp surprising the western world. it's that time of year where we're pending our thoughts to next year. tangible, economic prices to next year. it will be oil related, a chance, good job with raising the tax threshold in the uk. that means for the first year in five. uk link will be up, not down. and them i also think thattory thing our chancellor did a good job of was she raised taxes by 10 so companies can invest a 215 pounds, not just 200 pounds. >> that's a leverage the other governments have been trying to pull. but your point is interesting. it's not just

. welcome. merry christmas out there. thank you for joining us here on the show. what we're looking at today, we've got slightly quiet markets ahead of the u.s. open. what we're seeing, though, that all the markets are being called lower across the board stateside. the dow is being called a bit lower, nasdaq is being called a bit lower and the s&p 500 being called down by a bybit, as well. we saw markets coming off on friday stateside. pretty significant drops, as well, given that we now seem to be a clashing of heads between the republicans and the democrats in regards to moving forward on the fiscal cliff issue. it does seems as though they're running into logger heads here slowly before the last couple of days before the deadline to solve the fiscal cliff negotiations. the ftse 100, a couple of points higher at the moment. same going for the spanish market, the aex in the corner. we're looking at relatively flattish trade here in europe on christmas eve. let's recap off of what we've seen in asia in the overnight session here. you're looking at slight gains across the board. the

use of chemical weapons by the assad government in syria, the government warned him of the consequence conditions consequences he could expect. >> i want to make it clear to assad and those under his command the world is watching, the use of chemical weapons is and would be totally unacceptable. and if you make the tragic mistake of using these weapons there will be consequences and you will be held accountable. >> rose: i am pleased to have bob gates back at this table. welcome. >> thank you, charlie. >> rose: so what are you doing since you left government? >> well, i am working on a book, a mental with a of my time under presidents bush and obama as secretary of defense, and doing some speaking but staying as far from washington, d.c. as i can. >> rose: when you look at writing a book, i mean, how hard is that for you to take the time anand think of all of the events and make sure that you get it right as you recollect it? >> first i have given myself a little out at the beginning by saying this is a purely personal reminiscence of what i experienced and what i saw, i am not trying

times can you tell us that monster drinks aren't any worse and may actually be better than a cup of joe from starbucks? let us count the ways that this analyst meeting slash lovefest, they will tell you that there's no better way to preserve your heart than to drink a taste of monster every morning. now, analysts will be plenty hopped up when they come out of this meeting because they'll be recommending this stock in high-speed fashion. next on wednesday we're going to get the results from joy global. here's the company that has the best read on chinese growth of all the companies i follow. in fact, joy global called the bottom in the slide over there by analyzing data on chinese electricity use. can't be jiggered. people think this is an original equipment business, but i've got to tell you once again we're going to hear from the straight-shooting ceo michael sutherland that maintenance is more important. maintaining it is the equivalent. i'm going to listen to what he says about india. we don't talk about india enough. they are like coal junkies over there. it's like get me the ki

% thanks in part to having his hands in the cranes and food services part. he is going to be joining us exclusively this hour. here's why you have listened to him. is he keeping up pace in the new year and what part of his business is doing better. david: we have a very busy hour coming up, but what drove the market with the "data download." stocks pushing higher today at hopes they're moving higher to a debt deal. all three major indices posting gains with the dow and the nasdaq with a three session winning streak or adding onto that three session winning streak. financials and consumer discretionary for the top performing sectors while consumer staples like. falling for the lowest prices in five months have yet to spur demand. prices are down nearly 7% so far this month following the u.s. department of agriculture decision to cut the greens demand forecast. fact activity in new york state declining for the fifth month in a row in december as new orders dropped in the labor market remains weak. the new york fed empire state index falling into negative 8.1 from negative 5.2 in november.

congress will meet on sunday this coming weekend that. is definitely took us off our low. we had a major rally on that. 10 handles on the s.o.p.s we watched down here. it was a painful trade there for a couple of hours. ashley: ben, very quickly up until now the market hasn't really reacted to the fiscal cliff but seems today it really sort of kicked in. did the market get it wrong up to this point? >> the fear is we may have got it wrong. market as i've been saying for a while believes in fact we will have a resolution so we will not go over the cliff. the recent commentary maybe has been there will be a patch so we'll get it done by early january. the comments by mr. reid today. the ball was thrown into his court by mr. boehner who failed with his party, the expectation was mr. reid would have something positive to say the tape sent a clear message to washington, you got it wrong and if you continue to do this. ashley: daniel, what struck you about today's session? >> it is all the nonsense in washington pushing around as your previous guest said. you can't make a decision. what

travels home. >> thanks, carl. >> steve liesman. that does it for us here. let's get to headquarters, wopner and the fast money "halftime." >> welcome to the "halftime report." four hours to go until the close. take a look at green arrows across the board. the dow getting a bit of a lift in the last 15 minutes on word that the president and the speaker are meeting on the fiscal cliff at the white house, right now. here's what we're also following on "halftime." guarding your money. what's the best way to protect yourself from the fiscal cliff? vanguard ceo will tell you in a "halftime" exclusive. debate it, caterpillar has underperformed the market this year but with china looking up is the stock set for a surge? the "halftime" rumble is ahead. first our top story, biting into apple. citi downgrades the stock less than one month after calling it a buy. what does the firm's team of analysts see now? where will the stock head for header? traders are stephanie link, joe terranova, steve weiss and josh brown. you surprised at this downgrade? what does it mean for the stock which went und

pyramids. >> like a sphinx. >> exactly. >> because the pharaohs used to dry to domesticate this animal years ago. >> he's biting your arm. >> you saw how big the tigers were, full grown, they won't get that thick, you can see how thin it is. look at the ears, i don't mean worship the animal, but it reptded -- represented royalty back then. i'm sure a lot of people lost their hand trying to domesticate this cat. what's unique about this cat is one of the only cats in the world that can jump ten feet in the air and catch a bird flying. >> ten feet? >> only seen them twice in the wild. they live out in the jungles, the plains of kenya, tanzania, that part of the world. they don't exist much hardly up in egypt anymore. they lay down, watch for a bird and go plopping like that. because of their back legs are so powerful. >> ten feet is like huge. >> it's amazing. they can grab the bird going by. it's called a caracal cat. the ears give him away. >> very egyptian. what's next? we got the -- what are these? >> this is amazing. i didn't know we had this one on. this is a serval cat. this cat a